Dear Mina #8

Your official scrapbook is officially complete. I added some pictures and a couple of blog posts, wrote in all of the journal spaces, added all of the sympathy cards and condolence e-mail messages to finish it up. It sits now on the dining table by your pink footprint plaque that you made with Auntie Sue a couple years ago. I look at it a lot.

Have you noticed that I’m trying not to cry so much when I talk to you? I don’t want to make you sad every time I talk to you so I’m cutting myself off before the tears come. It seems I’m OK talking to you during the day but at night I get weepy. Sorry about that, sweetie.

Oh, I sent your “formal portrait” to my friend Samuel, in Nairobi. Our friend Paula took it to him when she went home after her DC visit. He loves it! He told me he’s going to frame it and hang it in his house and take a picture of it. I’m so proud of the influence you had on people during your life and even after you’ve gone.

Mostly, I miss being able to rub your belly and give you big hugs and kiss your face. I miss you kissing my nose and coming over to sit quietly near me when I have food that you find appealing. I still look up at the windows when I come home every day, hoping to see your furry face at the glass.